Finding Public Domain, Mathematical Software.

A service exists by which users can request and receive, via electronic mail, free public domain mathematical software. The service is called netlib(|). The service runs at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ for UUCPnet and Argonne National Laboratories in Argonne, IL for ARPAnet. Netlib operates without human intervention. Users must therefore be relatively specific in their request(s) to netlib. The database of software is built around a collection of independent libraries. An index for each library is available to briefly describe its contents. If a requestor is interested in a specific algorithm or topic, which is often the case, software for it may be present in several libraries. For instance, 95 routines to compute eigenvalues exist in 10 different libraries. We detail here the find facility of netlib that allows users to locate routines, across all libraries, by using keyword(s). The requestor submits a netlib request to find a given keyword(s). Information is returned to briefly describe the capabilities of the routine(s), and the information necessary to submit another netlib request for the routine(s), relevant to the keyword. Several examples are given to illustrate its usage. (|) Jack Dongarra and Eric Grosse, "Distribution of Mathematical Software via Electronic Mail", Comm. ACM, 30(403-407), 1987.